Critically Assess the Role of Efficiencies in Merger Assessment
Critically Assess the Role of Efficiencies in Merger Assessment

Author: Veronika Minkova

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2011-12

Total Pages: 29

ISBN-13: 3656016674

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Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Law - Civil / Private / Trade / Anti Trust Law / Business Law, grade: 1,3, University of Reading, course: European Competition Law, language: English, abstract: The first section of the present essay discusses historically the European Commission's approach towards efficiencies. The second section elaborates on the choice of welfare standards and explains the European approach of adopting the consumer welfare standard. The third section outlines types of efficiencies according to the economic literature. The fourth section discusses the three cumulative conditions of the European Commission in order to consider efficiency claims. The next section reveals the Commission decisional practice in cases of efficiency claims and analyses its development. In the last chapter more attention is paid to theory and practice of efficiencies in cases of non-horizontal mergers.

The Antitrust Paradox
The Antitrust Paradox

Author: Robert Bork

Publisher:

Published: 2021-02-22

Total Pages: 536

ISBN-13: 9781736089712

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The most important book on antitrust ever written. It shows how antitrust suits adversely affect the consumer by encouraging a costly form of protection for inefficient and uncompetitive small businesses.

How the Chicago School Overshot the Mark
How the Chicago School Overshot the Mark

Author: Robert Pitofsky

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2008-10-14

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 0199706751

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How the Chicago School Overshot the Mark is about the rise and recent fall of American antitrust. It is a collection of 15 essays, almost all expressing a deep concern that conservative economic analysis is leading judges and enforcement officials toward an approach that will ultimately harm consumer welfare. For the past 40 years or so, U.S. antitrust has been dominated intellectually by an unusually conservative style of economic analysis. Its advocates, often referred to as "The Chicago School," argue that the free market (better than any unelected band of regulators) can do a better job of achieving efficiency and encouraging innovation than intrusive regulation. The cutting edge of Chicago School doctrine originated in academia and was popularized in books by brilliant and innovative law professors like Robert Bork and Richard Posner. Oddly, a response to that kind of conservative doctrine may be put together through collections of scores of articles but until now cannot be found in any one book. This collection of essays is designed in part to remedy that situation. The chapters in this book were written by academics, former law enforcers, private sector defense lawyers, Republicans and Democrats, representatives of the left, right and center. Virtually all agree that antitrust enforcement today is better as a result of conservative analysis, but virtually all also agree that there have been examples of extreme interpretations and misinterpretations of conservative economic theory that have led American antitrust in the wrong direction. The problem is not with conservative economic analysis but with those portions of that analysis that have "overshot the mark" producing an enforcement approach that is exceptionally generous to the private sector. If the scores of practices that traditionally have been regarded as anticompetitive are ignored, or not subjected to vigorous enforcement, prices will be higher, quality of products lower, and innovation diminished. In the end consumers will pay.

European Merger Control
European Merger Control

Author: F. Ilzkovitz

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781845424916

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During its first 15 years, the EU's merger control system offered only minimal possibilities for taking efficiency gains into account as a mitigating factor that might offset the anti-competitive effects of a merger. The policy changed in May 2004 and this book examines the background to that change.

Mergers, Merger Control, and Remedies
Mergers, Merger Control, and Remedies

Author: John Kwoka

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 0262028484

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A comprehensive analysis of merger outcomes based on all empirical studies, with an assessment of the effectiveness of antitrust policy toward mergers. In recent decades, antitrust investigations and cases targeting mergers—including those involving Google, Ticketmaster, and much of the domestic airline industry—have reshaped industries and changed business practices profoundly. And yet there has been a relative dearth of detailed evaluations of the effects of mergers and the effectiveness of merger policy. In this book, John Kwoka, a noted authority on industrial organization, examines all reliable empirical studies of the effect of specific mergers and develops entirely new information about the policies and remedies of antitrust agencies regarding these mergers. Combined with data on outcomes, this policy information enables analysis of, and creates new insights into, mergers, merger policies, and the effectiveness of remedies in preventing anticompetitive outcomes. After an overview of mergers, merger policy, and a common approach to merger analysis, Kwoka offers a detailed analysis of the studied mergers, relevant policies, and chosen remedies. Kwoka finds, first and foremost, that most of the studied mergers resulted in competitive harm, usually in the form of higher product prices but also with respect to various non-price outcomes. Other important findings include the fact that joint ventures and code sharing arrangements do not result in such harm and that policies intended to remedy mergers—especially conduct remedies—are not generally effective in restraining price increases. The book's uniquely comprehensive analysis advances our understanding of merger decisions and policies, suggests policy improvements for competition agencies and remedies, and points the way to future research.

How Effective is European Merger Control?
How Effective is European Merger Control?

Author: Tomaso Duso

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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This paper applies a novel and intuitive approach based on stock market data to a unique dataset of large concentrations during the period 1990-2002 to assess the effectiveness of European merger control. We analyze the economic effects of the European Commission's merger control decisions and distinguish between prohibitions, clearances with commitments (either behavioral or structural), and outright clearances. We run an event study on merging and rival firms' stock prices to quantify the profitability effects of mergers and merger control decisions. The basic idea is to relate announcement and decision abnormal returns: merger control is effective if anticompetitive rents observed around the merger announcement are reversed by the antitrust decision, i.e. if there is a negative relation between announcement and decision abnormal returns. Our findings suggest that only outright prohibitions completely solve the competitive problems generated by the merger. Remedies are on average not effective in solving anticompetitive concerns, yet, we can qualify this finding. Remedies are more effective when they are applied during the first rather than the second investigation phase. Moreover, the European Commission appears to learn over time, since remedies are on average more effective in industries where they have been intensively applied before.

Quantitative Techniques for Competition and Antitrust Analysis
Quantitative Techniques for Competition and Antitrust Analysis

Author: Peter Davis

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2009-11-16

Total Pages: 1185

ISBN-13: 1400831865

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This book combines practical guidance and theoretical background for analysts using empirical techniques in competition and antitrust investigations. Peter Davis and Eliana Garcés show how to integrate empirical methods, economic theory, and broad evidence about industry in order to provide high-quality, robust empirical work that is tailored to the nature and quality of data available and that can withstand expert and judicial scrutiny. Davis and Garcés describe the toolbox of empirical techniques currently available, explain how to establish the weight of pieces of empirical work, and make some new theoretical contributions. The book consistently evaluates empirical techniques in light of the challenge faced by competition analysts and academics--to provide evidence that can stand up to the review of experts and judges. The book's integrated approach will help analysts clarify the assumptions underlying pieces of empirical work, evaluate those assumptions in light of industry knowledge, and guide future work aimed at understanding whether the assumptions are valid. Throughout, Davis and Garcés work to expand the common ground between practitioners and academics.